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AUBURN — Noah Igbinoghene could only see Quartney Davis out of the corner of his eye. He had settled into a zone just inside his own 30-yard line, with Texas A&M’s sophomore wide receiver along the sideline just behind him.

The sophomore cornerback tried to bait Kellen Mond into making that throw, leaning ever so slightly toward the middle of the field. The quarterback obliged. Had he hit his receiver, it would have given the Aggies more than enough to convert third-and-9.

Instead, Igbinoghene stepped in front of the throw with 7:14 remaining in the fourth quarter at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The converted wide receiver picked a heck of a time to come up with the first interception of his young career.

“I knew the game turned around instantly once I caught it,” Igbinoghene said after the game. “I looked to the sidelines and everybody was hyped.”

For Gus Malzahn, that was the play of the game. Auburn trailed by 10 and appeared well on its way to a crushing loss to No. 20 Texas A&M. Then, a switch flipped: The offense struck for two touchdowns in less than seven minutes, the special teams nearly made a house call, and the defense shut the door.

The final result was a season-saving, come-from-behind 28-24 victory — Auburn’s first in a game it trailed by double digits since Nov. 1, 2014, against Ole Miss. Igbinoghene’s interception provided the spark.

“The momentum was all on our side,” Auburn’s oft-criticized sixth-year head coach said. “The crowd was going bananas, and it really inspired our defense, inspired our offense. We were able to make plays when it was on the line, and that's hard to do, especially when we played like we played. We didn't play that good. To be able to do that, that's a good sign.”

Texas A&M running back Trayveon Williams (5) pushes through Auburn defenders to get into the end zone for a touchdown at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018. Texas A&M leads Auburn17-14 at halftime. Jake Crandall

Still, at that moment in the game, there was really no reason to believe that the Tigers (6-3, 3-3 SEC) would do anything with the lifeline the Aggies (5-4, 3-3) had just thrown them. Three minutes earlier, Texas A&M placekicker Seth Small missed a 36-yard field goal from a similar spot on the field. Auburn responded by going three-and-out.

The first play of that drive (an incomplete deep ball to Darius Slayton) went for no gain, the second (a screen to Slayton) lost 6, and the third (a sack) lost 9 more.

That was the Tigers’ third straight three-and-out and sixth of the game. They had some highlights at that point — a 20-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Ryan Davis to Sal Cannella on a trick play after an Aggie fumble, and a nine-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that ended with an 11-yard pass from quarterback Jarrett Stidham to Seth Williams — but both those came in the first half; Auburn’s first four second-half drives gained just 16 yards on 14 plays.

Its last two gained 129 yards on 10 plays. Both reached the end zone.

“I told the guys, ‘Let’s take advantage of this,’” Stidham said of his message in the huddle after Igbinoghene’s interception. “It’s not every day when you’re down 10 in the fourth quarter and you have an opportunity to come back and win a game. That was my message to the guys: keep fighting for each other, and sure enough, it worked out.”

There were more than seven minutes remaining in the game, but Auburn treated the drive like a two-minute situation. The run game hadn’t worked at all up to that point anyway — the Tigers rushed for just 19 yards on 21 carries, which is their lowest total in a game since 2000 and lowest total in a win since at least 1967, which is as far back as those records go.

Stidham had completed 11 of 21 passes for 114 yards at that point. He hit 5 of 6 for 67 yards on that drive alone — 9 yards to Davis, 15 to JaTarvious Whitlow, and 8, 14 and 21 to Slayton. Referees signaled touchdown on the last pass to Slayton, and while replay confirmed the junior wide receiver didn’t get into the end zone, H-back Chandler Cox did with a 1-yard plunge on the next play.

“I think a lot of people probably would have wrote us off when we were down 10 with 8 minutes left in the fourth,” Slayton said. “I don’t think a lot of people would’ve said, yeah, Auburn’s going to come back and win this game. We felt like we were able to come back and win this game, and that’s all that matters. Obviously, we were able to show that today.”

Cox’s touchdown cut Auburn’s deficit to 24-21 with 5:14 left to play. That could have been the home team’s final possession: Texas A&M picked up two quick first downs and had a first down at midfield with just three minutes remaining in the game. One more first down might have been enough to seal the victory.

But the Tiger defense had quietly dominated for most of the second half. Texas A&M running back Trayveon Williams scored his third touchdown of the afternoon on a 1-yard run to cap a eight-play, 75-yard drive on the Aggies’ first possession of the second half, but their next four drives resulted in nothing but time off the clock — 25 plays, 81 yards, two punts, a missed field goal and an interception.

So on first down from the 50, Deshaun Davis stuffed Williams for a loss of 3 yards. Timeout, Auburn, with 2:31 to play. On second down, Derrick Brown sacked Mond for a loss of 7 yards and forced a fumble, which Dontavius Russell very nearly recovered. Timeout, Auburn, with 2:19 to play. On third down, Mond threw incomplete. Braden Mann lined up to punt with 2:15 to play.

“We all just said we need to go ahead and do what Auburn’s defense does,” Brown said. “That’s something that we just pride ourselves on being able to do when our backs are against the wall.”

Mann entered Saturday’s game as the nation’s best punter averaging more than 52 yards per attempt. He also might be the only reason freshman Christian Tutt didn’t take his late-fourth-quarter punt all the way back to the end zone.

Davis, Auburn’s regular punt returner, retreated to the 10-yard-line on the right hash, looking like he was in a position to make the catch. Tutt caught the ball on the 14 and returned it 28 yards before Mann tripped him up. It was almost identical to a play the Tigers ran last year against Georgia, when Stephen Roberts acted as the decoy and Davis made the return.

“We’ve been practicing it for a while now,” Davis said. “We knew where they were going to punt the ball, exactly where they were going to punt it. They used me as a decoy. Christian Tutt did a great, disguising it and just being available. Him having a great return, I was so proud of him to get that opportunity, that chance at seizing the moment.”

Tutt’s return set Auburn up with first-and-10 on its own 42. Davis didn’t touch the ball on the punt, but he did on the first play of that drive, catching a short pass on a crossing route from Stidham and weaving through the Aggie defense for a 47-yard gain down to the 11.

“They brought the blitz, and it was the perfect play call for that blitz,” said Stidham who completed 7 of his final 8 passes for 125 yards. “Coming off the sideline it was great to get a big play and get some momentum and Ryan, that’s the thing he can do with the ball. He’s very electric and he can do a lot of things. He really made that drive go.”

Auburn scored the go-ahead touchdown on the next play: Stidham floated a ball toward the left corner of the end zone, and Williams made the leaping grab in almost the exact same spot on the field he did late in the second quarter.

The scoring drive covered 58 yards in two plays and took only 23 seconds.

“Zero chance it wasn’t coming down with me,” the freshman pass-catcher said. “It’s going to come down with me if it’s up in the air.”

That touchdown gave Auburn a victory it so desperately needed. A loss to Texas A&M could have sent the team into a downward spiral it might have had a hard time escaping. It still has games at SEC East champ Georgia and SEC West winner Alabama on the schedule. The Tigers would have needed a victory over Liberty in two weeks just to guarantee a .500 regular season and bowl eligibility.

And that’s not to mention how loud the calls for Malzahn’s job might have gotten, even with a buyout figure of more than $32 million.

That talk can be quieted now, at least for another week. Auburn will go bowling. It will also go to Athens, where it hasn’t won since 2005, with some momentum.

“I've been coaching 29 years, so you see just about everything. But, right now, it was a special win, the way that things worked,” Malzahn said. “Most teams, I don't think, would have done that. But our team did it today, so I'm real proud of them."

It was a win so nice the Tigers celebrated it twice: Players poured off the sideline when Mond’s desperation heave toward the end zone went out of bounds with triple-zeroes showing on the scoreboard, but referees put one second back on the clock after a replay review.

Igbinoghene sparked the come-from-behind victory with an interception of Mond. Nick Coe ended it with a sack.

“I could tell you one thing, I told my defense, 'Don't let this happen.' That's all I was saying. We thought the game was over, and we went to celebrate with the fans. Then they tell us to get back and we've got one more second. I was like, 'Man, if they convert this, we're going to be the laughingstock of college football,’” Deshaun Davis said.

“It's all about fight, man. It goes back to that logo and the things that were instilled in that logo before we even got here. Back to the days before we were even born. Auburn is built on toughness and is built on fight. I can tell you, my team showed a lot of fight tonight. We showed a lot of grit. We showed some will not to quit, and we found a win to win this game.”